Remembering September 2013

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Editor’s Note:This is one of a series of articles featuring the top local stories in The Sunbury News in 2013.

September 2013

Rosecrans statue unveiled and dedicated Saturday:

41 Rosecrans descendents in attendance

There was a large gathering of folks from near and far on Sunbury Village Square last Saturday. The event for their gathering together was so momentous that the 1st Ohio Statehouse Light Artillery, Battery A, was in town to fire their cannons, kicking off a parade of Civil War re-enactors around historic Sunbury Village Square.

A subsequent ceremony featured a host of speakers, including Sunbury Mayor Tommy Hatfield, Delaware County Commissioner Dennis Stapleton and Col. Robert Dallesandro from the United State Army Center of Military History.

But for all of the Civil War soldiers dressed for battle and words of wisdom that were spoken by dignitaries, the moment everyone waited for was when three ladies dressed in Civil War period dresses gently pulled a nylon parachute wrapping off a statue on the northwest quad of the square next to Soldiers Memorial.

Of course, it wasn’t just any statue. It was the larger than life equestrian statue of Civil War General William Starke Rosecrans, an Eastern Delaware County hometown hero. Major General Rosecrans was born in a double log cabin on Rosecrans Road in Kingston Township in 1819. He graduated from West Point and worked in the Corps of Engineers reinforcing ports on the east coast before teaching at West Point.

He left the military and went into private business as a geologist and architect in Cincinnati. When the Civil War broke out, General Rosecrans reported for duty and ended up leading major Union armies to victory.

OFHM Ceremony

Last Saturday, September 7, four days before the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and in the skies over Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Gold Star Family members joined with members of the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial and local dignitaries for the 2013 Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial Ceremony.

Retired GySgt Shawn Delgado, a Lima Company Marine who also serves as President of the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial Board of Trustees, made the ceremony’s welcoming remarks and introductions.

In introducing Congressman Tiberi, Jodrey said the memorial was started in 2005 with the first Ohio Gold Star families and 27 markers; and that Pat Tiberi has been had been involved with the memorial since the beginning.

Tiberi returned the compliment, saying that it would be appropriate to recognize the men and women who maintain the memorial.

“This is truly a great work that so many of you are responsible for,” Tiberi said. “And for eight years we’ve gathered here to pay tribute to the men and women from our state who have given their lives in the war on terror.”

Out with the old, in with the new:

ODE Report Card revamped

It’s that time of year again when folks wait with baited breath for the Ohio Department of Education to release school district report cards. But if you’re waiting to see if the Big Walnut Local School District retained its Excellent With Distinction rating don’t hold your breath. It’s not that Big Walnut has failed to deliver an excellent education to students; if you’re holding your breath until you’re blue in the face blame it on the ODE’s newly revamped State Report Card.

A visit to the ODE website will tell you that it’s not the familiar old report card that was introduced in 1999, the one that evolved through the years with its sometimes confusing but vaguely comfortable State Indicators, Value Added Measures, Performance Indexes and Average Yearly Progress numbers.

Folks could live with all the formula jargon because of the old report card’s one saving grace. At the top of each page it explained how a school district or individual school building was doing in the eyes of the ODE in one word — and for the past seven years that one word for Big Walnut has been Excellent.

The new A-F Report Card is not only loaded with even more unfamiliar jargon, there are letter grades for almost every thing and each student population subgroup. Unfortunately, with letter grades scattered throughout the new report card, school districts statewide will still have to wait until 2015 for an overall letter grade. The closest indication of where Big Walnut stands in the eyes of the Ohio Department of Education is an overall grade of A in the area of District Progress.

Compiled by Lenny C. Lepola

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